Kindle, Pt II.

I'm a little up in the air about the Kindle right now. A major disappointment is that if the battery is well and true dead, it cannot recharge itself via a USB cable. I took it on my recent trip to Europe, with only the USB cable. At some point, the WhisperNet got turned on, and proceeded to drain the battery. And then I couldn't charge it again.

Which was one of the causes of the Worst. Flight. Evar., my 11 hour ATH /ATL, in which the equipment was changed (no power at the seat); the IFE was broken (no movies, not that they were that great to begin with); and I had no reading material (Other than a copy of FT, where I read everything, including the stock tables.) If the Kindle had been able to be charged with a USB cable, I could have been happily reading any number of books.

The iPhone can recovery-charge via USB. Why can't the Kindle?

Travel Anger Management

I didn't quite scream, but I nearly got to it this afternoon, checking into my "hotel" in London. It's actually a University dorm, outfitted for the lucrative conference market, so calling it a hotel is giving it a lot of credit. The near-screaming was started because there was 1) no wireless, 2) the internet they did have required me to register my MAC address, and 3) I had to pay for this "privilege" of internet access.

In the end, I told the front desk that I was told Internet would be free. I played my very best passive aggressive american traveler, and ended up getting free Internet. Well, not sure if it is free or not, but I didn't pay at sign-up, like I was supposed to. Tomorrow I get to send an even better passive-aggressive note to the conference organizers and tell them to fix things with the front desk.

Cranky Travel Complaining

I'm leaning against a wall in the Cincinnati airport, after being offloaded from a 767-300 with a fuel pump problem. (but, at least I had a ghetto upgrade!) Hopefully, the problem is going to get resolved, and I'll only be 3-4 hours late getting into London.

This is after the comedy of errors in trying to get my corporate card: first, it didn't come in the mail. Then we had to figure out an over night service that would cross the picket line to deliver (FedEx: Yes; UPS, DHL: No), then we had to figure out who signed for the envelope (No one by that name at the entire company), then discover that the letter is still on the FedEx truck, and headed North to Everett, where I could pick it up at my convenience between 5:30 and 6:30PM (or, when I had planned to pack.)

It can happen to anyone. It just happened to come together for me.

Shrek: The Musical

In a nutshell, when faced with an artistic decision, the producers and director decided to do both.

It was all a little overwhelming, especially on the Fifth Avenue's stage. I don't know where it will be in NYC, but the staging seemed a little cramped. There was no memorable song, but neither was there a real clunker. At 2:45, it was probably longer than I would want.

Of course, this is still in previews, so I'm guessing that it will change a bit before it goes to Broadway. I thought that Shrek has potential and just needs editing. I didn't think that way about Young Frankenstein